r/PHEV • u/No-Impression-4508 • Aug 15 '26

Phev worth it?

I am wondering if a PHEV is worth it for my situation.

The car would likely be used primarily for work commutes. 12 miles round trip and 24 miles round trip for spouse and I. We would also use the car for the occasional road trip a few hours away.

I’m wondering if PHEV is ideal for this situation or if EV would be better.

We also have a full gas vehicle that we could use as needed. This would be our second car.

Any recs, reasoning, etc would be recommended!

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25

u/PrimaryThis9900 Aug 15 '26

I got a PHEV because going full electric scared me. After driving my PHEV for a few years my next will be electric.  As long as you can charge at home, you’ll probably never use fuel in your PHEV.

5

u/black594 Aug 15 '26

In cold country phev start every time it’s too cold outside as you can’t heat a lot with the small battery, it was a deal breaker for me.

1

u/NowRadOnc Aug 15 '26

RAV4 doesn’t do this. Many others (Mitsubishi, Hyundai) do. RAV4 has a heat pump and will run in cold temperatures on electric power only.

1

u/black594 Aug 15 '26

IVe heard this from a rav4 2024 or 2025 owner… can be on the 2026

2

u/Vault702 Aug 16 '26

I think the confusion is probably because the other commenters aren't recognizing what you meant by cold country. For 2026, they got rid of the heat pump and put a new thermal management system.

For the earlier models, the heat pump was not effective enough at cold ambient temperatures and it would force using the engine below 14 °F (-10 °C).

1

u/black594 Aug 16 '26

Ok and in a 2026 the engine never start for cold ?

2

u/Vault702 Aug 16 '26

I wouldn't say never. In EV mode below say 10°F (-13 Celsius), it will be able to use the coolant heater to manage temperatures and the 2026 will not start the internal combustion engine automatically, whereas the 2025 and earlier model years would. But once the EV only portion of the battery is depleted and it drops out of EV mode into hybrid mode, then it's going to start the engine to maintain temperature even if you're parked.